Opportunities of digital solutions for addressing food donation challenges

Despite the potential of food donations to address food waste and food insecurity issues, the major actors in the commercial food sector are still hesitant to donate food surplus to food banks and social charities due to the lack of incentives and various food donation-associated challenges. Existing research on solutions addressing food donation challenges has been rather limited. Emerging digital technologies, including but not limited to distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), have gained increased attention as a potential solution to increase food supply chain (FSC) transparency, visibility and sustainability. However, emerging technologies have not been widely investigated or applied for improving food donation processes, and the application of digital solutions for food donations is in general limited. Through conducted systematic literature review and case study research with three NGOs, this study outlines food donation challenges, potential benefits of implementing digital solutions in food donation contexts, and perceived expectations among NGOs on their benefits. Study findings elaborate on research propositions, highlighting the potential of such digital solutions to improve food donation operations, including improved supply, demand and resource constraints visibility in a food bank supply chain, and facilitated access to food for beneficiaries. While digital solutions can support in addressing existing challenges of food insecurity and food waste, complex structural changes and policy support are needed to tackle such problems.